Whence The Three Jewish Pilgrimage Holidays
Whence The Three Jewish Pilgrimage Holidays
The tree Jewish pilgrimage holidays are Sukkoth (Tabernacles), Pesach (Passover) and Shavu’oth (Pentecost).
My search for their Whence left me exasperated. I suggest:
Moses was “slow of speech”. Aharon, his brother, was his PR representative. They were members of the tribe of Levi.
Aharon’s immediate family appointed themselves the Israelites’ Priests (Cohen, pl Cohanim) with a host of material and social privileges, and bestowed privileges also on all their family relatives, on all the members of the Levi tribe.
They established these three holidays as annual pilgrimage holidays as part of the tax-tribute system for their benefit, for their parasitic authority over the other eleven Israelite tribes. Sukkoth for the annual fruits ingathering, Pesach for livestock (including human firstborn redemption) tribute and Shavu’oth for the harvested plants.
This is my suggestion.
Dov Henis
(comments from 22nd century)
PS:
“Tabernacles“, meaning also “house of worship”, is associated in my memory files with palm leaves, which remind me of Mesopotamia the Palms’ cradle, reminding me of the botanically grass “palm trees”, Tamar in Hebrew, upright, with their palm leaves spread open to heaven like praying human’s palms, with God’s gift, reward, t’murah in Hebrew, “dat” in ancient Persian, “dates” now, rewards for sacrifices and prayers…ancient culture transfer from Babylonia and Persia to Greece to Rome…
BTW, “Baghdad” (“God’s gift”) boasts of more than 300 varieties of dates fruit… DH